


Bitter Sweets

by Merakii



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, M/M, Multi, Smut, ereri, neighbours!au, riren - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-06-09
Packaged: 2018-11-12 04:02:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11153829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merakii/pseuds/Merakii
Summary: Eren's an aspiring photographer in the heart of the city, scooping ice cream to making a living until his career takes off.Levi works in management at your typical office job, wanting more from his days than just his nine-to-five and nightly scotch.The two find themselves living in the same apartment complex, and suddenly there seems to be more to life than just their careers.





	Bitter Sweets

“I hate my job.” I muttered under my breath.

And I did. Don't get me wrong, Baskin Robbins is a great place to work when you're say... Sixteen. It's even tolerable when you're nineteen. But twenty-three with a college degree? No thanks.

I should be grateful I even had a job, though, with the ridiculous amount of college students out for the summer in the middle of Toronto. Luckily, I'd been smart and gotten a job right after high school, and kept it all through college. It just so happened to be scooping ice cream for loud children and snippy forty year olds most of the day. But it paid the bills – well, most of them.

When I moved off to Toronto for school, my parents had insisted on taking care of my rent. I must have been some kind of saint for them to offer up that kind of financial support at my age, and I had tried to refuse their money countless times; but alas, I was still living under their name. I really couldn't complain, though. $11.40 an hour wasn't enough to afford the excruciatingly high rent of Ontario's capital. Not until I could ditch the apron and put my degree to use, at least.

My parents had always been supportive of my dreams. From the moment I picked up a camera for the first time, to the day I packed my bags and left London to live in the central focus of Canadian media arts. When I turned seventeen, they bought me a fully loaded Macbook Pro for my birthday, equipped with all of the editing material I could even possibly need. I'd started off taking photos for the school yearbook, then prom, and a few other events in the area. I was good for an amateur, but I knew I needed to grow past that. So off to OCAD I went, bright, cheery, and doe-eyed.

“My waffle cone doesn't have any chocolate on the inside!”

And back to the present, where I had to use every ounce of my energy to force a half-decent smile onto my face.

“Our standard waffle cone doesn't come with chocolate. The chocolate waffle cone is an extra fifty cents.”

He didn't seem pleased, and continued to wave his cone around, “That's ridiculous! A bit of crap chocolate sauce would put you out of business? Give me a break!”

Deep breaths, Eren. Deep breaths.

“I'm sorry, sir. I don't make the prices. If you'd like to pay the extra fifty cents, I can give you a new cone.”

“This is an outrage! Bring me your manager!”

I suppressed a sigh and turned around sharply, heading into the back to grab Reiner.

“We've got a code 429 out front. Please save me,” I pleaded, my mask falling to let the exasperation show through. Reiner lifted his head from his papers and raised a brow, examining my appearance before standing and making his way to the counter.

“Hello, sir. How can I help you?” He conducted his voice in a professional manner, a friendly expression settling nicely on his features. He'd obviously been working in retail much longer than I had.

“Your employee has been extremely rude, and refused to give me a chocolate waffle cone,” the man's voice carried painfully loudly to the back room, and I grimaced at the inaccuracy of his words.

“Of course. I'm terribly sorry. I'll get you a new one. What flavours did you have there?”

Ugh. It was just so easy for the manager to come in and be the good guy. It didn't matter what actually happened – the customer is always right, after all. So I waited patiently until I was sure he'd left, and Reiner had returned to the back before I returned to my station. Armin sent me an empathetic glance, and smiled softly in my direction. I couldn't help but feel myself relax a little at that. I wasn't alone in this – I had my best friend with me most days, and he had to deal with horrible customers too. We'd suffer together, and then go back to one of our apartments to play Minecraft or League to blow off steam.

“Hey, before you know it, your work will be plastered on billboards across the country,” He assured me, taking advantage of the sudden lull in customer traffic to make conversation, “then you'll be out of here, and you'll never have to scoop ice cream ever again.”

The tension in my shoulders eased away, and I nodded in a hopeful agreement, “thanks, Armin. You coming over tonight? I finally got everything unpacked.”

He shook his head gently and his gaze turned apologetic, “can't, sorry. I have plans with Jean tonight.”

“Oooh, romantic date?”

“As romantic as stuffing your face with meat lovers pizza and binge watching Friends can be,” he laughed, and I could only chuckle along with him at the joyful sound.

“I'll start planning the wedding.”

“Eren!” He squeaked softly, waving his hands quickly, “Don't joke about that. I think he might actually ask me soon.”

I turned my body slightly and leaned my hip against the counter, crossing my arms across my chest, “and there's something wrong with that?”

“I-” his face turned a deep rosy colour as he flushed down his neck, his fingers fiddling with a frayed thread on his apron, “I don't know. We're just so young... I haven't even found a proper job yet.”

“Armin. It's not like you'd be getting married the next day. You'll have time to get everything in order before you tie the knot.”

“I know that. It's just..”

“Scary?”

“Yeah.”

“Hey,” I rested a hand on his shoulder comfortingly, and used the other hand to lift his chin, “you guys are great together. You've been dating longer than we've been friends, and he treats you like a prince. Don't freak out because he wants to make you his king.”

“Eren, that was awful,” he mumbled, though his lips were curving into an amused smile.

I grinned proudly, glad that at least my horrible way with words was enough to wipe the conflict off of his face for now, “I don't know what you were expecting from me.”

“Really, not much.”

“Okay, maybe lie to me next time. Ass,” I shoved him playfully with the hand on his shoulder, and grinned wider when he started to laugh. Mission accomplished.

The little bell on the door chimed as it opened, and we both composed ourselves and directed our attention back to the front. A pair of well dressed men made their way through the entrance – one tall and blonde, and one seemingly annoyed, short and raven-haired. Blondie had huge ass eyebrows, and shortie had his hair shaved into an undercut. Both wore ties, which made me scowl a bit at the difference in salary we must have had.

“Hi there, how can I help you?” I asked in my customer service voice, and plastered a smile on my lips. Blondie looked up from his partner and seemed to lose track of whatever it was he had been in the middle of saying as he finally reached the counter. His eyes darted down to my name tag and back up before a friendly smile settled over his mouth.

“Hi, Eren. I'll take a double scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough in a waffle cone, and he'll have a single scoop of peanut butter 'n chocolate in a cup, please,” he fished his wallet out of his pocket and pulled out a nice gold credit card – of course - to tap on the machine as I put his order through and gestured to it.

Armin was already working his way through the orders, and bless his heart, was pretty much done by the time I was handing the receipt to Eyebrows. He was always so efficient and quick, which was why he was Reiner's favourite. Jean wasn't a fan of that.

“Have a nice day!”

Eyebrows gave me another smile, and then gestured to a two-seater across the room before guiding the short one off towards it.

Armin poked my side and leaned in to whisper to me once they walked off, “he's cute, right?”

“Who? Captain America? Yeah, he's alright, I guess,” I mumbled, grabbing one of the cloths from the sanitizer buckets to wipe the station down, “not really my type, though.”

“Really? Classically handsome isn't your type?” He raised a brow and turned his eyes to oogle the tall one a bit, “Alright, I'll bite. What's your type, Eren?”

I pressed my lips together in thought, and raised my gaze to give the occupied table another glance. My eyes fell on the dark haired man and studied him carefully. His eyes were small, slanted, and his face was quite angular, but also somehow... soft looking. His brows and lips were thin, and his hair was parted just off centre to fall just above his eyes in something that resembled bangs. His skin was pale, but not sickly – almost like a cream, or porcelain. He wasn't movie star handsome like his friend, but he had a uniqueness to him that kept my eyes trained on his features until I was sure I hadn't missed anything.

“I don't know. His friend? He's pretty cute.”

“Really? Wow. I wouldn't have guessed that from you,” Armin mused, a finger to his lips as he thought about it, “I always saw you as the type to like the extremes. Very feminine women, and very masculine men.”

I rolled my eyes and threw the cloth at him, which he caught at the last moment, “sorry I don't fit the norm.”

“It's not bad! He's attractive. Just not what I thought you'd like,” he defended, folding the cloth and setting it back in the bucket, “you should ask for his number.”

“Aha!” I shouted, catching all four of us in the room off guard – myself included – and my cheeks heated up in embarrassment as I met the eyes of the shorter man from across the room. I cleared my throat and averted my eyes before trying again in a much quieter tone, “I knew you were trying to set me up. You just can't stand the fact that I'm not dating anyone right now.”

Armin whined softly and stuck his hands into his apron, “it would be good for you, Eren. You're too obsessed with all of the serious stuff. You could at least throw a bone every now and then.”

“Was that a sex joke, Armin?” My brows raised in amusement, and his raised in surprise as he realized what he'd just said, “you think I need to get laid. Is that it?”

“No!” He exclaimed quickly, though much quieter than I had, “Well, yes. But I think you primarily need someone who can make you happy.”

“Okay, well I'm not going to resort to asking a stranger I've never talked to for their number. If I meet someone and we click, then I'll pursue it. But for now, I'm fine going stag.”

“You and 'fate'. Haven't you ever heard of making your own destiny?”

“That would be like trying to make my own gravity, Armin,” I frowned, tugging his hair playfully, “don't shit on my beliefs because you don't understand them.”

“Okay, okay. But if someone I know just happens to show up for dinner one night, and I get a phone call asking me to come home... I mean, you can't control what the universe wants to do right?” The mischief in his eyes was enough to make me kick his shin – not enough to really hurt, but enough to tell him shut up. He just chuckled and took it like a trooper.

“Go get your shit together and punch out. Don't want to be late for your proposal dinner,” I stuck my tongue out at him and he gasped playfully, though I could see the pink in his cheeks.

He reached around him to untie his apron and headed into the backroom to alert Reiner and grab his things. When he returned, he gave me a hug and slipped out from behind the counter with a wave.

“Bye Armin!” I waved back at him and smiled as he left. I couldn't help but notice Brows McGee staring after him, and I made note of it to tease Armin with later.

It was a couple minutes later when I was stocking napkins and spoons that I heard a polite coughing sound from behind me, and I turned to find the shorter male standing at the counter with his hands in his pockets.

“Think you could spare a couple cups of water?” I noticed his eyes were a foggy blue colour – almost grey. 

I nodded and gave him a quick smile as I grabbed two paper cups from their stack and filled them with water from the tap – making sure to put in some ice of course. When I sat them down on the counter, I took the chance as I saw it and met his gaze.

“Here you are. You're really cute, by the way.”

His lips parted a bit as what looked like surprise flashed through his eyes. He wrapped his hands around the cups and hesitated for a moment.

“You too. Thanks.”

Then he spun on his heels and walked back to the table to where Blondie was waiting for him with a slight smirk.

\--

This was getting ridiculous. 

I couldn't find my memory card _anywhere._ Why it wasn't in my camera, I had no idea. But it was somewhere in this god damn apartment, and I needed it so I could go out and take some photos at the park down the street. I must have put it somewhere while I was putting everything away.

That was the thing about moving. You'd unpack everything and put things in places you'd think they belong in, and then you have no idea where they are every time after that. You try to get your life together and keep your shit organized, and where does that get you? Into a state of pure confusion and frustration. But hey, at least the place looked good.

It wasn't a crazy fancy place, but it was nice enough. It was an open concept apartment with an island bar separating the kitchen from the living room. The dining table sat just off to the side of the island, in the corner of the room – though I hadn't even used it since I'd moved in. I preferred to eat at the couch or in bed. The place was generally bright, with beige walls and light wooden floors. The furniture was all pretty much white with wooden accents as well, which tied the place together. I'd stuck a few plants in corners and on table tops to give it some life, but I wasn't too hopeful that I'd be able to keep them alive that long. There were two doors along the wall in the hallway from the front door to the main room that when opened would reveal a white and grey themed bathroom, and a bedroom that connected to it via another door inside the room.

It was overall a great place for one, or even two people. My parents had been very thorough about making sure I'd be comfortable and in a good neighbourhood. I really owed them a lot.

But regardless of how amazing the apartment was, I'd been too caught up in making sure it stayed looking good to actually keep it somewhat functional. I was on my third round of looking through all of the drawers when I threw my hands up in the air and cursed the gods for letting this happen to me.

“Fuck it, I'll go get a new one... I need a backup anyway...” I mumbled to myself, huffing as I gave the room another once over.

I grabbed my wallet, phone, and keys and headed to the front door to cram my feet into my shoes, mumbling complaints along the way. When I opened the door, I was met with the familiar sound of jingling, and stepped out to see someone in the corner of my eye at their door.

 _Must be my neighbour,_ I thought as I shut the door behind me, quickly twisting my key to lock it before turning to face them. They were wearing athletic shorts and a sleeveless hoodie with the hood up. He looked as if he'd just been out for a run.

“Hi, you must be my neighbour,” I greeted, smiling warmly, “I'm Eren. It's nice to meet you.”

The man was reaching for the door handle when he heard my voice, and his head turned to look up at me. I was met with striking blue-grey eyes, and my jaw dropped slightly.

“It's you!” I exclaimed in disbelief, my eyes raking up and down his form. It was one hundred percent the man from earlier at work.

“So it is,” He mused, pushing his hood back to reveal his dark undercut, “small world.”

“Well considering you stopped for ice cream in the area, I wouldn't say it's that crazy of a coincidence. But it's still kind of cool,” I grinned, slipping my keys back into my pocket.

“'Cool', huh?” He raised a brow and eyed the way my teeth showed through my wide smile, “well, I need a fuckin' shower. I smell like skunk piss.”

I blinked, taken aback by his language. What kind of person talked like that to a total stranger?

He opened the door to his apartment and took a step inside, but I quickly made a noise to get his attention back.

“You still haven't told me your name,” I pointed out.

He turned his head back towards me and stared for a moment before opening his mouth again, “Levi.”

My smile returned, and I swayed a bit onto the balls of my feet, “nice to meet you, Levi.”

He hummed, and waited a moment longer to make sure the conversation was done before he nodded in departure and closed the door.

I stood there for a moment longer, and stared at his door, taking it all in. A total stranger I had found cute at work turned out to be my next door neighbour. That kind of thing didn't just happen everyday. I was reminded of my conversation about fate with Armin, and a curious chuckle escaped my lips. Maybe I'd ask for his number, after all.

Suddenly I wasn't as annoyed that I'd lost my memory card, and with a spring in my step, I headed off towards the elevator.

**Author's Note:**

> Ooooh look who started a new chaptered fic. Even though my other one is still in the works... hahaha... Yup.
> 
> I found myself craving some AU, and suddenly this baby was born. ISAIH will still be continued, but I needed another outlet since writing Non-AU is pretty difficult. Also, this one is definitely going to be longer than ISAIH (which was only supposed to be like 5 chapters to begin with).
> 
> It might feel a little weird to see a Canadian setting, but I swear Toronto is pretty cool! I don't live there, but I live pretty close so I go up there quite often. It's one of my favourite places in the world, and needs more appreciation from non-Canadians.
> 
> Also, this chapter is on the shorter side, but I found myself wanting to bring it to a close before I started getting into it more. LOL
> 
> Regardless, I hope you enjoy!
> 
> \- Merakii


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